Page 2 - Kind News, May/June 2021, Teacher Guide

COMMON CORE, NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS (NGSS), AND CASEL-ALIGNED ACTIVITIES

Third grade: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.3. Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker,
offering appropriate elaboration and detail. CASEL Core Competency: Relationship Skills.
To go with “Incredible Careers with Animals: Being an Entomologist”: After reading the article once,
discuss what animal professionals work in your community, such as animal shelter staff, veterinarians,
or animal behaviorists. Choose one of the activities below to do as a class:
• Watch an interview or clip from a professional who works with animals
• Invite an animal professional to speak to your class virtually or in-person
Before watching the clip or speaker, ask students to reread the questions that Kind News asked Morgane. What do
students notice about how the questions are written? If inviting a speaker, ask students to write five to seven open-ended
questions ahead of time that they would like to ask. If watching a clip, ask students to come up with additional questions
they have after viewing it. Discuss what they have learned. How does this person help animals in their community?
To extend the activity, students could choose to interview someone in their community who has a career with animals,
and share with the class one or two interesting facts they learned.
Fourth grade: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.4. Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience
in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or
themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace. CASEL Core Competency: Social Awareness.

To go with Humane Hero, “Kaitlin Shows the Way,” and “Incredible Careers with Animals: Being an Entomologist”:
After reading both articles, ask students to complete Kind Question #2 and share their answers with a partner.
Review what social awareness is and brainstorm: What can they do to help animals in their
community and still stay safe/socially distanced? Ideas include:
• Helping animals at their local shelter by conducting or raising awareness about a pet food,
blanket, toy, or supply drive, fostering an animal, or sharing about the benefits of fostering
• Spreading the word about how to keep pets cool during hot weather
• Letting others know about ways to help wildlife, such as planting a garden and safe
guidelines for feeding wild animals

To extend the activity, ask students to choose one of the above activities to do and share
their experience with the class, and discuss who they helped and what they learned.

Fifth grade: NGSS 5-LS2-1. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals,
decomposers, and the environment. Disciplinary Core Idea LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems:
The food of almost any kind of animal can be traced back to plants. Organisms are related in food webs in which some animals
eat plants for food and other animals eat the animals who eat plants. CASEL Core Competency: Social Awareness.
To go with “Pyrophytic Plants!”: After reading the article, ask students: Why is fire sometimes helpful? Allow students time
to research the both the positive and negative effects of wildfires on living things and the environment. Then, set up a
“tug of war” where students can post their reasons to support one of the following statements. This can be done in-person
with sticky notes or virtually through Google Jamboard or another digital whiteboard. After students post their responses,
go over the reasons supporting each statement together. Which side is more convincing and why?
1. Fire has more of a negative impact on living things and the environment than a positive impact.
Fire has more of a positive impact on living things and the environment than a negative impact.
2.
Sixth grade: NGSS MS-LS2-4. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to
physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
To go with “Incredible Careers with Animals: Being an Entomologist”: After reading the
article, ask students: Why are insects so important to ecosystems? What do they think
would happen if insect populations were to suddenly decrease? How would humans be
affected? Ask students to choose an insect and research its role in its ecosystem.
• Is this insect’s population threatened, and if so, what can we do to help protect it?
• What effects will a change in the population of this insect have on its ecosystem and the Where’s Raja?
other living things within it, including humans?
RAJA IS HIDING ON PAGE 3!